OMRI DAILY DIGEST, No. 242, Part I, 17 December 1996

No death sentences have been carried out in the Russian Federation since August, Chairman of the Presidential Commission on Pardons Anatolii Pristavkin told ITAR-TASS on 16 December. The Council of Europe called on Russia to place an immediate moratorium on executions when Russia was admitted to the organization in February of this year, but 53 death sentences were carried out in 1996. In 1995, 40 people were executed, and in 1994, 10. In the new Criminal Code, which goes into effect on 1 January 1997, the number of crimes punishable by death has been reduced to five. Pristavkin called for the adoption of a law banning capital punishment to prevent the authorities from resuming executions. -- Nikolai Iakoubovski